Clafoutis ~ I’ve heard the name tossed about on food TV frequently the past few days, and today it was all I could think about when I saw a stack of beautiful, blushy Rainer cherries at a Granville Island produce stand. This French dessert can be made with any stone fruit (think peaches, plums, apricots) or even with berries, but the classic version from the Limosin region of France uses black cherries.

Rainer Cherry Clafoutis with vanilla ice cream and cherry sauce.

Technically, a clafoutis using anything other than black cherries is a flaugnarde, so says the intertoobs, and in traditional recipies, cherry pits are not removed before baking. Leaving the pits is said to enhance flavour, but I didn’t want to have to pick around them, so I pitted my cherries.

Ingredients are simple: egg, milk, flour, flavour, a little butter or oil. Clafoutis batter is rather thin, like crepe batter, and is usually flavoured with almond or vanilla. It puffs up during baking and cuddles around the fruit as it sets. In fact, it’s very much like making a Dutch Baby pancake.

This was my first attempt at clafoutis, and it turned out quite well. Gingerman liked it, and we had the leftover portion for breakfast the next day. I half made up a recipe on the fly because I had only 2 eggs and a strangely shaped dish. A few more experiments, and I’ll come up with a reliable version of my own. Meanwhile, I found some inspiring recipes online and gathered a bit of clafoutis wisdom to share.

Baking Tips for Clafoutis:

Butter & Sugar the baking dish: Butter the bottom and sides of the dish, toss in a couple of tablespoons of sugar, and shake it around to coat the dish. Dump excess sugar that doesn’t stick.

The moment I found out Vancouver was having a cupcake bakeoff, I looked at GingerMan and said, “We’re going. They’ll have free samples.” He smiled at me and said, “You had me at Free Cupcake.”

My choice for Best Cupcake: The Neopolitan by Frosting Cupcakery

It was an overcast Vancouver morning, but it was all sweet frosted happiness at Yaletown Roundhouse. Throughout the day, 1110 people came by to taste the wares of top-notch local bakers and cupcakeries. My only suggestions for improvement: a slightly larger room and a free glass of milk. 8)

Vancouver Cupcake Challenge organizers Nicole Marie Events and Follow Me Foodie invited the public to sample delicious treats and help select the People’s Choice cupcake, while a panel of judges (including a few local foodies) put in their votes for the Judges’ Choice and Blogger’s Choice.

Fabulous door prize at the Vancouver Cupcake Challenge.

Congrats to Frosting Cupcakery and Big City Cupcakes! You guys take the cake. As a cupcake connoisseur, I appreciated the unique flavour combinations presented by all the contestants. Several memorable participating bakers (including the challenge winners) are profiled below.

Cake and ice cream is a birthday party classic. Frosting Cupcakery immediately won me over with their Neopolitan cupcake: a vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry combination that really tastes like ice cream! Their exotic Love Potion cupcake marries flavours of mango and passion fruit, and the Caramel Crunch is a divine confection of buttery caramel and madagascar vanilla with bits of Skor Bar.

Based in Langley, I’d say this cupcake shop is definitely worth a trip! They have a fantastic assortment of delicious treats and wonderfully creative recipes for holidays or any days, plus they host birthday parties for kids and offer custom cupcakes for special events and weddings. Take a peek at their cupcake menu!

When they say “big” the’re talking about the cupcakes, too. Way more than a mouthful and loaded with yummy frosting. No skimping on the good stuff. Many of their cupcakes also have fillings! The best of the bunch is the Lemon Drop: Vanilla cupcake with tangy lemon filling and lemony buttercream frosting. They also offered samples of the Strawberry Cheesecake (yes it has cheesecake filling) and the Truffle, which has a ganache truffle filling.

Big City Cupcakes has three Vancouver locations: Downtown (1015 Howe St.) ~ Kitsilano (2206 West 4th) ~ Point Grey (4481 West 10th). See their website at bigcitycupcakes.com for a complete list of locations and menu of yummy flavours, including gluten free or egg & dairy free options.

Pastry chef Clare Thomas offered three luscious little cakes including Pistachio Cupcakes with White Chocolate Buttercream, Vanilla Bean Cupcake with Tangy Lemon Buttercream, and a perfectly delectable Dark Chocolate Cupcake with Sweet Caramel Buttercream. The texture of the cake was divine (moist and not too dense) and it had a lovely deep chocolate flavour. I loved that some of their baby cupcakes were topped with candy flowers and tiny little ladybugs. So cute!

Really creative and artistic bakers in North Vancouver with excellent taste. Their unique Oreo Cookie cupcake even had cookie crumbles in the cake! NOM! Not only does Cake Tease make yummy cupcakes, they also do fabulous structured and sculpted cakes, too. Have a look at their photo gallery.

Fresh ingredients, small batches, and no dairy or eggs! Pink Sugar calls their sustainable goodies “eco-chic party treats” and offered three fantastic little cupcakes to sample. The toasty coconut cupcake was a huge hit with Gingerman, and the Peanut Butter filled Chocolate cupcake was moist and delicious. An excellent flavour combo! The Chocolate Strawberry cupcake was also supertasty, with real strawberry puree in the frosting. People in Victoria are lucky to have Pink Sugar in their neighbourhood. Check out their inspiring menu of designer cupcakes.

This dinner was inspired by Martha Stewart and the need to use stuff up (namely, half a brick of cheddar cheese). A while back, I discovered the rigatoni “cake” at Martha Stewart dot com. The idea was too clever not to try, so I used my own red sauce recipe and followed the assembly instructions successfully. The end result: a delightful looking cake of tall pasta tubes with cheesy topping. Sliced in giant wedges, it just begged for candles and a round of Buon Compleanno. It’s the kind of recipe that delivers . . . provided you are patient and attentive to details.

Tonight, I decided to try a cheesy version. I made two individual portions in a pair of mini-springform pans for dinner and prepared the rest in a smaller baking dish to freeze for later. With a little garnish of bacon and tomato salad on the side, this comforting meal is sure to satisfy. We had some tilapia and white wine to go with. Next time, I think I’ll skip the fish and make a bigger salad.

Standup Mini Mac & Cheese with potato crusted tilapia and salad.

The process might seem complicated, but it’s really easy and fun to do. Kids could definitely help with the recipe, and the results are really special. Dinner was awesome, and I can’t wait to do it again.

Tips For Success:

Rigatoni: Don’t overcook the pasta. To make sure the tubes don’t collapse, boil them approximately 8 minutes so they are slightly underdone. Tossing the noodles with oil and parmesan helps the pasta stick together and stand up in the baking dish. Pack them in the dish gently so the tubes don’t close. Can’t fit all the tubes? Use the leftovers to make tomorrow’s lunch or a midnight snack.

Cheese Sauce: The sauce must be thick enough to cling, but thin enough to pour. Inexpensive cheddar, American cheese, or Velveeta will make the creamiest sauce, but many combinations of cheese will work nicely, so there’s a little room to experiment according to your taste.

Baking: A springform pan makes the perfect shape and best “cake” presentation, but I’ve also used a rectangular glass baking dish (cut squares for serving). Put the baking dish on a cookie sheet to prevent spills in the oven. Be sure to let the baked pasta cool at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Stand Up Mac & Cheese

Mini Mac

It’s all about the technique . . . and that yummy cheese sauce! I managed to make the sauce in the time it took to boil water and cook the rigatoni. If you aren’t confident about juggling two tasks at once, make the pasta first and assemble it in the baking pans, then focus on the sauce. Use a springform pan for the prettiest results and easy slicing. A regular baking dish with high sides will do, though.

Arrange the pasta tubes (standing on end) in the baking pan. Tilt the pan slightly as you build the rows of tubes, so they don’t fall over. Pack tightly but gently, so tubes stay open to hold the sauce.

Add The Cheese:

Make the Cheesy Bechamel Sauce (recipe below).

Spoon the cheese sauce over the pasta, allowing it to run between and into tubes. Don’t worry about completely filling the tubes.

A while back, I joined up with Iron Cupcake Earth in the interest of stimulating my baking muse. Each month they challenge bakers to come up with creative ways to use a particular ingredient and make nommy cupcakes. Of course, there are PRIZES, too! I love prizes.

So many possibilities! Raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, snozzberries . . . and so many ways to use them. This weekend, the farmers market was full of fresh organic strawberries, and it was high time I took up the Queen’s challenge. This is my first attempt at an Iron Cupcake, and I’m pretty well satisfied with the results. Ginger Man ate three right off the bat! It was a tasty adventure, plus I got to use some of my favourite things:

Bonne Maman Prairie Berry Jam: a mixture of raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. Made in France.

Silicone Cupcake Liners: super-easy cleanup and no trash!

Strawberry Cornmeal Cupcakes with Prairie Berry Frosting

The addition of a little cornmeal to the batter enhances this cupcake’s texture without making it taste like cornbread. It’s a sweet cake, not savoury, and the baked tops have a pleasant toothsomeness.

Note: Mix the batter with a regular ol’ wooden spoon so the ingredients don’t get overmixed. For the frosting, use an electric mixer for best results.

Cook the strawberries:

In small saucepan, combine 1 pint fresh strawberries (quartered), 2 Tbs sugar, 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice, and a few grinds of Citrus Salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until thickened and reduced by about half. Set aside to cool.

Mix the dry ingredients:

scant cup sugar (not quite a full cup)

1 cup flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Mix the wet ingredients:

1 beaten egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbs melted butter

3/4 cup milk

Combine the mixtures:

Gently stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture until just combined.

Do not overmix.

Fold the cooked strawberries into the cupcake batter.

Bake the cupcakes:

Divide batter among 12 lined muffin cups.

Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes.

Cool completely before frosting.

*At the last minute, I decided to add a little surprise when the cupcakes came out of the oven. While the cakes were still warm, I scooped out the center of six cupcakes and filled them with a few mini chocolate chips. Strawberries love chocolate, and so do I. Covered with frosting, they all looked the same. The little extra chocolate boost was fun to find!

Macadamia nuts, pineapple, coconut, and ginger. Island flavours combine in a moist, tasty cupcake that is delicious with frosting or whipped cream, but don’t let that stop you from eating them buck nekkid.

I’ve been working on my luau cake recipe for a while, and this is an excellent version. I use minced ginger in a jar from The Ginger People—one of my favourite pantry items. If you want to use powdered ginger, reduce the amount by half.

This is a small volume recipe. It makes just enough batter for about 12 cupcakes, or 6 cupcakes and two baby cakes. I have two miniature springform pans that I use to make itty bitty cakes for two (since most of the time it’s just me and Ginger Man at the table and a whole cake is really just too much). Sometimes when I bake, I’ll throw part of the batter into my baby-cake pans and then freeze the layers for later. Long after the original goodies are gone, I can whip out these sweeties and voilá! The perfect size layer cake for two!

Grinding Nuts

I love using ground nuts in cakes, cupcakes, and muffins. It adds texture, flavour, and lots of good-for-you nutrients. Grinding works best in a food processor, but you can use a coffee grinder or blender, even a mortar and pestle. Got none of these? Put the nuts in a ziplock bag and whack them with a rolling pin.

Tip #1:Add a teaspoon or so of granulated suagar to the nuts just before grinding. This will help absorb oils and keep nuts from turning into nut butter.Tip #2:Pulse the food processor on low speed until you get the grind you prefer.

Toasting Nuts & Coconut

If you like using nuts or coconut, you’ll be amazed at the difference toasting makes. Toasting heightens flavour and aroma, and in the case of coconut, pleasantly changes the texture. Coconut toasts more quickly than nuts, so keep an eye on it and be sure to stir for more even browning. You can toast nuts whole, chopped, or ground.

With vanilla ice cream and pineapple-ginger whip.

Luau Cupcakes

Prepare pan for 12 cupcakesPreheat oven to 350°

Mix dry ingredients:

1/2 Cup macadamia nuts
(toasted and ground)

1/2 Cup coconut flakes
(toasted if you want)

1 Cup flour

1/3 Cup brown sugar

1/3 Cup granulated sugar

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

Add wet ingredients:

1/2 Cup melted butter

1/2 Cup crushed pineapple

1 tsp minced ginger

2 Tbs coconut milk (or sub regular milk)

1 egg (beaten)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Spoon batter into lined cupcake pan. Bake in preheated 350° oven for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely, then frost with Orange Ginger Buttercream frosting OR split the cupcakes with a fork, then fill with vanilla ice cream, and top with a dollop of Pineapple-Ginger Whipped Cream.

Orange Ginger Buttercream Frosting

Whip 2 Tbs softened butter with 1 tsp minced ginger, 1 Tbs orange juice, and the zest of 1 orange. Gradually add 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, blending well after each addition. This frosting is quite rich and sweet, so I don’t use a lot. Double the recipe if you want more.

When I bring my cupcakes to the yard, all the ginger boys scream “Erin go bragh!”

A hint of beer, boozey and sweet, like an Irish lover’s kiss. These cupcakes are truly scrumptious. This recipe makes 24 cupcakes with enough leftover ganache, frosting, and cupcake middles to make a little plate of truffles.

This is not an ordinary cupcake recipe, and it’s definitely not for kids. The recipe is decadent and very rich (using real butter, heavy cream, and three kinds of alcoholic beverage). It also takes time to prepare and involves quite a few steps, but the reward is worth the effort.

The flavours are inspired by a pub concoction called an “Irish Car Bomb” (careful where you order these, or you could get a poke in the puss). It’s a type of boilermaker: a shot glass full of Jameson’s and Bailey’s gets dropped in a pint of Guinness, then you have to chug it down before the Bailey’s curdles and you end up drinking cheese. Ew. Trust me, the cupcake version is much better.

Hand out a few of these decadent and delicious goodies and people will say the most wonderful things, like “You’re a genius! I love you! Marry me.”

Caution: Because of the complexity of this recipe, try to resist the temptation to finish off the extra beer or nip the wiskey while you cook. You could end up half in the bag and pass out in a pool of ganache . . . not that that has ever happened to me. *hic*

How To Streamline The Process:

Read the recipe through several times.

Make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment you need.

Make room in the kitchen and set up cupcake pans and piping bags.

Chop the chocolate and let the butter come to room temperature.

Make the cocoa beer butter, then preheat the oven.

While the beer butter cools and the oven heats, start making the cupcake batter.

While the cupcakes are baking, start making the ganache.

While the ganache and cupcakes are cooling, make the frosting.

Set up an assembly line for excavating, frosting, and filling the cupcakes.

Clean up as you go, be patient, and take your time.

Special Techniques

Making Ganache

Ganache is the heavenly union of chocolate and cream (and usually flavouring—in this case, whiskey). Heated cream meets chopped chocolate, then gets stirred until smooth and thick. In this recipe, thickened ganache is piped into hollowed out cupcakes. Once it cools, it will set to a fudgy consistency.

Ganache changes if you alter the temperature or the proportion of chocolate to cream.

Beating the ganache too much can make it grainy. To learn more about ganache, including how to smooth out a grainy mistake read on at The Global Gourmet.

Using a Pastry Bag

Fit a pastry tip and coupler inside the bag, screw on the outer collar, then fill the bag about 1/2 full. Twist the end of the bag to seal it shut and push the filling forward to the tip. Hold the twisted end in your right hand and squeeze to control the flow. Direct the tip of the pastry bag with your left hand.

If you don’t have a pastry bag, you can improvise with a Ziplock baggie. Fill the baggie about 1/2 full with icing or ganache, seal it by twisting, then snip off the corner tip and start piping. You can also make a simple piping bag with a piece of parchment paper. Watch Liv Hansen’s video to learn how!

Pretty piping takes practice. If you’re new to the idea, experiment on a clean plate or a piece of parchment paper and start with simple designs like swirls, dots, lines, or stars.

The Recipes

You can find the original recipe @ Smitten Kitchen. Thanks to Sassy Radish and Bruce who turned me on to the idea. My version below uses the maximum amount of booze, and I added a bit of vanilla to the ganache to balance the flavour a bit. I used two kinds of dark chocolate (Cote d’Or Belgian 70% cocoa and Alprose Swiss 74% cocoa). In metric Canada, two 100 gram bars = about 7 oz of chocolate, slightly less than other recipe versions, but the end result was fine. I also took the trouble to sift the flour, cocoa powder, and icing sugar before using it, to prevent lumps. I used Canadian Club whiskey, as my bottle of Jameson’s was dry. *hic*